Histopathological characterization of lung tumours at the University Teaching Hospital, Lusaka, Zambia: a pilot study

BACKGROUND: There are limited data on histological classification of primary lung cancer from sub-Saharan Africa. Furthermore, the time trends of age-truncated incidence rates of lung cancer by histological phenotype in Zambia are also unknown. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to determine histological types of lung tumours at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) in Lusaka, Zambia. METHODS: This was a retrospective pilot study of lung tumour biopsies collected from the histopathology laboratory at the UTH over a period of one year. Tissue sections were stained and when seen, lung cancer was classified using standard histological methods. Data were analysed using IBM SSPS version 23. RESULTS: A total of 23 lung cancer tissues were retrieved. Histological types included eleven (47.8%) squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), six (26.1%) adenocarcinoma, two (8.7%) small cell carcinoma, two (8.7%) large cell carcinoma, 1 (4.3%) inflammatory myofibroblastic tumours and 1 (4.3%) pleural pulmonary blastoma. The results showed that the most affected age group was 60–69 years with most of the histological subtype in this age group being SCC. There was no statistically significant difference of histological subtypes across age groups, p=0.12. CONCLUSION: This study has shown that the most commonly diagnosed type of primary lung cancer is squamous cell carcinoma. More data are needed to further corroborate this observation.